Blood
by Roe Dusk
Summary: Rufus learns more than he thinks he can handle about the company he's inherited and Sepiroth. Sympathetic Rufus, if I can get it. Rufus and Sepiroth family, but not Romance. Idea from a case of misinformation from years ago.


This is a story that has been sitting on my computer for a while waiting for editing/expansion. Unfortunately, I am still at a loss for what to do. Any suggestions for future scenes or edits would be appreciated.

I am putting more notes at the bottom so as not to spoil the story.

* * *

**Inheritance**

Rufus Shinra sat in the president's chair with a small smirk on his face. But, inwardly, he was far from calm.

Ancients. Nebelheim. Jenova. Project G.

He had it all at his fingertips now, all of his father's highest security files, For President's Eyes Only, Just as he'd always wanted. Now, he wasn't so sure.

Basing the company agenda on the legends of a dying race, one they were helping to destroy. Handing the survivors of a catastrophe over to Hojo to silence them, 'For the good of the company.' Injecting newborns with questionable genetic material taken from a long dead woman found in a rock. And what sort of person allowed an experiment to be named after the poor woman who had been forced to take part? He was beginning to understand too well a man he'd never wanted to know.

And then there was project S. This one he had actually heard of, having bullied Tseng into bringing him what files on the General were available to Turks. That had been after he'd heard of the General's disappearance, while he was still under house arrest in Junon. There hadn't been much available, and all of it had been doctored to 'protect company interests,' or some such.

He had managed to glean that Hojo had somehow tampered with the General as a fetus to create the perfect soldier, and that the General had not been informed. Sephiroth had probably thought everything the company had had done to him **_after_** his birth was where he got his superhuman abilities.

Rufus hadn't liked the sound of the experiment then. But, now that the actual file was in front of him, it was worse than he had imagined.

Project S. For Sephiroth, the file he had read had claimed, but it wasn't true. The name had existed for almost a year prior to Sephiroth's naming, and that had only been because a name was required for the legal papers. No, before Sephiroth, before 'Subject S' was even conceived, the project had that name. Project S, for Shinra, the father's name.

It all made sense, now that he thought back on it. His father had been promised a living weapon, a soldier beyond all others. Hollander had, of course, started his research as soon as the President had said he was interested, using both his assistants and the sons he'd conceived as subjects.

But Hojo had always been the sly one. He offered to use the President's own DNA to conceive the child he would use for the experiment. The President would have jumped at the chance, and, throughout the years, he had favored Hojo's experiment over Hollander's. Of course, his blood would be the best.

Under the pretense of supporting the experiment producing better results, the old man had let Genesis and Angeal grow as normal children in Banora, while Sephiroth lived through a hell of endless tests in Hojo's labs. Sent to Wutai at 14, Sephiroth returned from battle after battle a hero. By the time Genesis and Angeal were applying SOLDIER, Sephiroth was a 1st class, and still rising. The hero of the Wutai war led subordinates through thick and thin. Even when he had been joined as 1st by his fellow experiments, he was the General, the undisputed best.

His father must have watched him from his high tower, from this very chair, and smirked. He would never claim such a powerful man as his son, soon the populous would be demanding him as heir. But he could watch as his unclaimed son fought for him, never knowing another life. And never knowing why he was not allowed to claim his own achievements, why it always had to be 'for the good of the company."

Of course, his father had barely batted an eyelash when Genesis, and then Angeal, had disappeared. He had simply ordered the usual traitor treatment.

But, when Sephiroth disappeared, the whole town had to go. Burn it to the ground and get rid of the witnesses. Any survivors who might have seen. Even those who had averted a far greater disaster, for the company and the world, by stopping the General before he'd done something even Shinra couldn't cover up.

The outward mask had shifted into a thoughtful frown as Rufus tried to reconcile this sudden insight.

He had claimed he wanted this company, had risked his life trying to get it. Now that he had it, was this really what he wanted?

_You don't get a choice anymore,_ he suddenly snapped at himself. _You're already in to far. You always knew this company did shady things, even if you didn't know all the details. You chose to pursue this power, this position, in spite of that. Now you're the president, you don't get a choice anymore. It's too late to train for a different career. You're stuck. You learned the workings of Shinra, the power plant, the research company, the private government, army and all. You bet your life on it, and you won. Now you wish it were different? You want to change it?_

Rufus shook his head lightly to clear it, the thoughtful frown belaying the intensity of his inner conflict.

He had become president. No matter that it was because Sephiroth had killed the hated man whose blood they both shared. He himself had walked over **_bodies_**to get here, and not just that one. Now he was bound to serve the company, as much as it was bound to serve him. To change it into a morals abiding establishment would destroy it. And not only the company, the lives of everyone who worked there, and the whole world. They were all dependent on Mako now, his father had made sure of that.

No, he would play his part, the ruthless businessman, and do everything in his power to ensure the company future. Today would be the start. He would have to seize the reins, somehow, and assert his control over his father's old subordinates. That would take time.

He hoped he had time.

He winced at that thought. Sephiroth, had the General really returned from the dead for revenge? Could he stop such a man? Did he want to?

_Perhaps_, a small part of him ventured, _perhaps Sephiroth will hear of the new president, realize that killing off the head hadn't worked. Perhaps he'll return, to complete his revenge, and cut through the company to get to me. Perhaps, when he is finally standing before me, sword in hand, I won't be the president anymore._

_Perhaps I will simply be Rufus, and I can apologize_.

_But chances are he'll just kill me first. Maybe a meteor will fall out of the sky and kill me too._

A knock snapped him out of his thoughts and he turned to the door, his slight frown still in place after his pondering. As the door opened and he saw who stood there, years of trained habit took hold and he smirked. Even that small frown could be taken as a weakness and used against him. His father had proven that time and time again.

Tseng stood just inside the doorway, not quite meeting Rufus's eye, but you'd never be able to tell if you didn't know him well. Rufus's smirk widened imperceptibly at that. Yes, he could claim to know Tseng well. He had even trusted him once. But never again. Tseng had taken him hostage and then sold him out to his father to save the Turks mentor and secure his own position again. That betrayal is why he had ended up under house arrest in the first place.

It could have been worse, he knew, if he hadn't had his own web of safety net to fall back on when his father had turned on him. But **_he _**had caught himself.

Tseng returned to him later, apologetic without ever saying so. And Rufus had been all to willing to use him. Turks were useful after all. He had even pulled some strings behind the scenes to ensure the threesome were not knocked off as potential traitors and replaced, though he'd made sure they'd never know. Thanks to Tseng he had the loyalty of the Turks, a useful tool. Tseng felt he owed him, and that was fine with Rufus. He knew they would never stab him in the back, especially now that his father was no longer his rival in sway over their lives. But he would never, truly, trust them again.

And he was sure Tseng knew that.

"Sir," the Turk spoke up after a moment of no greeting, "The funeral will begin in the main lobby in half an hour."

Rufus nodded his understanding and stood. Sweeping around the desk and past the Turk into the elevator. Tseng followed a half a step behind.

Rufus shrugged inwardly, small smirk still in place. He would trust Tseng at his back, but that did not mean he wouldn't carry the hidden gun he hadn't told the Turk about.

He swept out of the elevator a few minutes later, and, with a concealed sigh, Tseng followed.

* * *

Ok, basically this story is from wrong information I got on a fansite about FFVII back when I first looked into it, that claimed that Sephiroth was the genetically created son of President Shinra.

I learned otherwise really quickly, but remembered the idea a few months ago and decided to see how it worked out.

And I ended up with a sympathetic and emotionally mixed up Rufus Shinra.

I swear, I kind of have to be cursed that I keep coming up with sympathetic versions of people I didn't like before and ending up liking them. It has also happened with Naraku from Inuyasha, please don't ask.

All I know for this story is:

-That it follows Rufus's thoughts and inner turmoil through the main game and into Advent Children.

-I know he implies his forgiveness of Tseng (not really obviously but enough for Tseng to get it, somehow) right before Tseng leaves for his almost fatal confrontation with Sephiroth in the Temple.

-That he confronts Sephiroth's reincarnation (somehow) during Advent Children (which will take a ton of work, he's in a wheelchair for heaven's sake and he can't really wheel himself all the way to the Shinra Tower from the top of a building in Edge in time to talk to Sephiroth).

-And that I really want to show his growth from the "evil" rufus in the game to the "I owe the world" rufus in AC.

So...

-Comments?

-Questions?

**-Help?**

Thank you for reading!


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